Homeland Security special agents hold up a Google Glass moviegoer

The possibility of piracy was enough to shake a man down for illegal footage.

A patron of an AMC theater in Columbus, Ohio, was detained this past Saturday for wearing Google Glass while watching a movie, according to a report from The Gadgeteer. The Glass-wearer, who wishes to remain anonymous, was pulled out of the theater mid-Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and questioned for an hour by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents.

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The man had recently had prescription lenses fit to his Google Glass and wore them in to see the movie. According to his testimony published at The Gadgeteer, an agent approached him an hour in, “yank[ed] the Google Glass” off his face and commanded the man to follow him. Outside the theater were 5 to 10 cops and mall security personnel.

The man was taken to a room for questioning and said the agent told him he “[had] been caught illegally taping a movie.” During the questioning, the man repeatedly invited the agents to connect to his Glass’ USB port to demonstrate that there was no content on the device but photos of his dog and wife.

After an hour of pumping the man for personal information and the circumstances of his Glass ownership, the agents connected to his Glass and smartphone with a computer and browsed their contents. Satisfied that the devices contained no illegal recordings, the agents sent the man on his way with two free movie passes.

Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for ICE, gave the following statement to The Gadgeteer:

On Jan. 18, special agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and local authorities briefly interviewed a man suspected of using an electronic recording device to record a film at an AMC theater in Columbus. The man, who voluntarily answered questions, confirmed to authorities that the suspected recording device was also a pair of prescription eye glasses in which the recording function had been inactive. No further action was taken.

The interaction resembles the time a California woman was pulled over and given a ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving. Her ticket was later dismissed.